These three men, each successful musicians in their own right, have embraced the concept that it takes a village to raise children who are aware, compassionate and kind to others. They all three are living a life full of diversity, as well as fantastic music. They do perform together in Abraham Jam, but each have solo careers. Billy Jonas and David LaMotte are also authors.

Each recognizes the power of the others’ religion, and the validity and value of the diverse paths they walk, side by side. Together, they represent the three peoples of the book, and walk — and sing — the talk of diversity, inclusion and brotherly love.

Diversity is exactly the concept that world leaders want to push to the back of their agendas, now. The concept of an exclusionary, ethno-centric government is what is being brought to the forefront. Exclusionary governments teach millions of people not to care about “the other”.

These three talented, loving men teach the opposite: caring about each other; learning about and from each other is the goal, purpose and higher order of living.

I’d like to share a very short story:

When the bus driver on Rosa Parks’ bus threatened to call the police, and have her arrested, her exact words in response were, “you may do that.” There is such power in these few words — claiming her own dignity and acknowledging that each of them had choices to make in that moment, and that those choices would have consequences. That’s true for all of us.

–from the liner notes of David LaMotte’s album “The Other Way Around”

My belief is that we must have eco-diversity for Mother Earth to survive, because all forms of nature need each other. Even we need the other forms of life.

As human beings, we also need diversity. We need each other, despite having different ways to love; different ways to worship; different views on education; living in different locales and environments; living in different countries. Whatever the differences, how seemingly major, however actually slight, choosing to have different friends, friends who are different from you, is a powerful choice. You may do that. And if you do that, the world will become a better place — more peaceful, more harmonious. More Whole.

My hope is that you will constantly open your ears, your heart and your mind to the concept of diversity, and that you will seek it in your own life, every day.

Why Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a decisive moment for Western civilisation

PHOTO: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison at the album’s launch in 1967.

It is axiomatic that the 1960s gave rise to several events so vividly etched on the memories of those who lived through them that they still remember what they were doing at the time.

President Kennedy’s assassination is the obvious example.

Another is the first moon landing. In the case of the latter, everyone was doing the same thing — watching it on television.

Most people who remember the 60s also recall where they were the first time they heard Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The Sgt Pepper concept

Sgt Pepper appeared on June 1, 1967, and was an early example of the “concept album”.

The Beatles’ albums had steadily become less like compilations of individual songs, and more like integral statements in which the songs were related to each other, as William Mann was among the first to point out.

Mann was the chief music critic of The Times, and he had taken to reviewing the Beatles’ albums on release, just as he would the premiere of a new work by a modern classical composer, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen.

In his review of Sgt Pepper, he told his readers to expect, “sooner or later”, the pop equivalent of Schumann’s Romantic song cycle, Dichterliebe.

The Times’ theatre critic, Kenneth Tynan, called it “a decisive moment in the history of Western civilisation”.

It was McCartney’s baby

Although the album contains some of John Lennon’s best-known songs (including Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and A Day in the Life), Sgt Pepper is very much a Paul McCartney record, and most of the songs are by him.

There’s a bright, poppy quality to the album, thanks to songs such as Fixing a Hole, Lovely Rita and Getting Better, though the last has an interpolated Lennon line (“Can’t get no worse”) to bring it down to earth.

By the same token, McCartney provides A Day In The Life with a dose of levity just at the point where it might be thought to be taking itself too seriously: “Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head” is all Paul.

The original idea of the album was that the Beatles were not “The Beatles” but the “Lonely Hearts Club Band” of the title.

In this guise, they would introduce themselves and their guests and play a set of songs, musical-hall style.

Somewhere along the line, the original idea seems to have become scrambled, but there remain vestiges of the Sgt Pepper conceit: in the opening song and subsequent introduction of singer “Billy Shears”; in the oom-pah accompaniment to McCartney’s When I’m Sixty-Four; and in Lennon’s Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite, whose words were taken, almost verbatim, from a Victorian circus poster.

That famous album cover

Designed by the artist Peter Blake, the cover design shows the four Beatles dressed in brightly coloured military uniforms, clutching musical instruments.

These members of Sgt Pepper’s band are surrounded by a throng of on-lookers among whom are waxwork dummies of the Beatles themselves.

The rest of the crowd consists of effigies of Beatle heroes, including Karl Marx and Carl Gustav Jung, Aldous Huxley and Dylan Thomas, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe.

The handful of women among the 70-odd faces are pin-ups and sex symbols like Mae West and Marilyn Monroe (though, strangely, Shirley Temple makes three appearances).

One of the more surprising figures on the cover — top left, between Lenny Bruce and W C Fields — is Karlheinz Stockhausen, whose avant-garde compositions, especially his electronic music, had recently begun to fascinate McCartney.

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has what is probably the most famous record cover in history, yet its really significant feature was not the photography on the front, but the words on the rear.

Today we take such documentation for granted, but Sgt Pepper was the first pop album to publish its song lyrics in this manner, and the implication is obvious: the Beatles expected their new record to be listened to with the same kind of attention commonly given to classical music.

In 1963, their first album, Please Please Me, had been recorded in a little under 10 hours; Sgt Pepper took 129 days.

The Beatles now required a correspondingly greater investment of time and effort from their listeners.

I know that many people around the world grew up with the Beetles as did I. My first concert, my first album, my first rock movie all were the Beetles. I remember vowing to myself that I was not going to scream like those silly other girls did. I found myself screaming along with every other teen in the venue. It was hypnotic and no one could respond in any other way. At least I have never known anyone who confessed to different behavior.

I have been to many rock concerts since those days. I have seen George Harrison, may he rest in peace, and Paul McCartney in concert. Ringo please come to Asheville, NC. I feel that musically we have lived in a magic age that found its roots in the 60’s revolution and then blosssomed out and created a garden full of amazing composers, singers and musicians. I wish to thank them all for providing the soundtrack of my life.

Like this:

Yesterday we drove to SC to visit friends and the Greenville Museum of Art and the History Museum It was a beautiful warm day and we had a lot of fun. The Art Museum allow photographs so I got a few of those also.

I hope you enjoy the journey. The art phot0graphs were taken with my phone camera not my regular camera.

Neil Diamond, Sweet Caroline, is dedicated to my late husband. RIP

This was from the trip down to Greenville. Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

White Crepe MyrtlePhotograph and Copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Fluffy breezy cloudsPhotograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 201

Purple crepe myrtlephotograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Lovely landscapePhotograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Side of mountainPhotograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Art by Jasper JohnsPhotograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Art work by Yoko Ono. Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Sculpture. Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Sun getting lower in the sky and early evening arrives. Photograph and copyright by Barbara Matttio 2016

I love watching the clouds float across the blue skies. Photograph and copyright by Barbara Mattio 2016

Like this:

Today was a busy day for me. I am much better just tired. We went to the Light Center and you go into a dome like building and in a dome shaped room. Lights and music are used for healing. This is one of their prayers.

A Prayer for the Earth

God is all-powerful Light and Love. God is peace and harmony. God is true prosperity and perfect abundance. God is energy. God is Divine order and Divine right action. God is freedom and justice. God is wisdom, inspiration, and Divine guidance. God is Divine intelligence and Divine mind. God is truth. God is true forgiveness and loving release. God is joy. God is life. All those things that God is. All nations and peoples of Planet Earth are filled and surrounded with God’s all-powerful Light and Love. All peoples, governments, institutions, and organizations of the world are Divinely inspired to create world peace and prosperity. Divine order and harmony, freedom and justice are established of all on Planet Earth. Government officials, diplomats, and negotiators are God in action, acting to the highest good of all. Civil servants, legislators, judges, and citizens are God in action. Scientists, industrialists, and bankers are God in action. International relations are filled with Light and Love. Government spending and taxation are filled with Light and Love. The financial and business worlds are filled with Light and Love. Commerce and the world money supply are filled with Light and Love. All communications and the media filled with Light and Love. Science, technology, energy supplies, medicine, and agriculture are filled with Light and Love. The Earth environment, flora and fauna are filled with Light and Love. Together, we all work from our God center to create a new world of peace, prosperity and harmony.

Thank you, God

This is a revision of the prayer “World Peace and Prosperity” (1987) 2015 by Diana Miller (ne Diana Marie Zorn)

Whether we our praying for our own healing, for another’s healing or for our leaders, remember to prayer for Mother Earth always.

The Atlantic Ocean at twilight. Photographed and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2009

This is a compilation of prayers about healing Mother Earth.

They are from many different spiritual paths. All prayers rise to heaven and all prayers are known to God. There is not just a certain religion whose members pray and receive answers or attention.

In this world, every prayer counts, and we are One Family living on One Mother Earth. Let us, all pray, whatever words come from your heart and soul. I hope you will see that the meaning of the different prayers is all the same.

“Let us be united,

Let us speak in harmony,

Let our minds apprehend alike.

Common be our prayer,

Common be the end of our assembly,

Common be our deliberations.

Alike be our feelings,

Unified be our hearts;

Common be our intentions,

Perfect be our unity.”

— From the Rig Veda

“It is up to us to receive and transmit our Torah.

It is up to us to see that the world still stands.

May the time be not distant

when nation will not lift up sword against nations,

neither shall they learn war any more.

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,

for the earth will be filled with the wonder of life

Then shall we sit under our vine and our fig tree

and none shall be afraid.

—Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro

“Cattle browse peacefully

Trees and plants are verdant,

Birds fly from their nests

And lift up their wings in your praise.

All animals frisk upon their feet

All winged things fly and alight once more—

They come to life with your rising.

Boats sail upstream and boats sail downstream,

At your coming every highway is opened

Before your face the fish leap up from the river.

Your rays reach the green ocean.

You it is who place the male seed in woman,

Who create the semen in man;

You quicken the sun in his mother’s belly,

Soothing him so that he shall not cry

Even in the womb you are his nurse.

You give breath to all your creation,

Opening the mouth of the newborn

And giving him nourishment.

——-From the Pharaoh Akhenaten’s ” Hymn to the Sun”

“Water flows over these hands.

May I use them skillfully

to preserve our precious planet.”

—Thich Nhat Hanh

“Be praised my lord because our sister

Mother Earth sustains and rules

us and because she raises

food to feed us : colored flowers

grass.

Be praised my lord for those who pardon by your love

and suffer illness and grief

Bless those who undergo in silence

the poor for whom you hold a crown

Be praised my lord for Sister Death-of-Body

whom no man living will escape

And pity those who die in mortal sin

and everyone she who minds you

bless: no second death

to bring them hurt.

Oh praise my lord and bless my lord and thank

and serve my lord with humbleness

Triumphant.”

—Saint Francis of Assisi

“All living beings; all our relations.

We pray for ourselves and all persons;

for the ducks, loons, penguins, eagles and

sparrows:

for dogs, cats, monkeys, elk and earthworms;

fish, mussels, deep-diving whales;

eucalyptus and cactus, fir and roses; all our relations.

Guide us to true peace and security;

grant us protection and freedom from all

bondage;

help us to be free to be ourselves, with

respect for all.

Enfold us in the clear light of safety and

warmth and wholeness.”

—Hazrat Inayat Khan

Bahama water garden. Photograph taken and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2013

“The soul of the whole of creation is one, the life behind all those ever-moving phantoms is one. Meditation on this truth and the awakening to it will harmonize the condition of the world.”

Help Save a Child

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HANDS UP 4 JUSTICE APP

The Hands Up 4 Justice audio and video APP records encounters with law enforcement. This APP was created to video and audio record encounters with law enforcement for your safety. The best use of the APP once pulled over by the police, turn on the front facing camera and start recording..

Protests – Black Lives Matter

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KEEP EYES ON THE POLICE. NATIONAL POLICE VIOLENCE MAPPING TOOL.

Tool designed to help you hold Elected Officials accountable for police violence.

Hank Johnson Justice Fund

NO JUSTICE, NO MONEY
In the wake of the killings of unarmed black men and boys and the outrageous failure to prosecute their killers, Hank Johnson is introducing the Grand Jury Reform Act. This bill will prohibit the use of a grand jury when determining whether to prosecute a police officer in the event of a death. The status quo isn’t working. The evidence is clear. The people are demanding a real response from their elected leaders.

I am a retired widow with 4 kids and 9 grands. I worked as a nurse, and in Domestic Violence, and many non-profits, I was a donor health counselor for the American Red Cross and am a certified HIV counselor. I worked as a counselor and I have been a make-up artist and selling specialists for several American designers. I love life. I am very spiritual. I grew up in 50's and 60's and truly am the idealistic rebel which is the name of my blog. I love music, books, reading, Kindle, beauty. I am a photographer and an artist. I believe in making the world better one day at a time. I am now living in Asheville, NC.